Flying from Barkley vs Nashville

While we were all taught that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line, in today's aviation industry that is not necessarily the case. To prove this point we give you the hypothetical case of Jim and Bill.

Bill thought it makes more sense to fly out of Nashville, because he didn't think it made sense to fly north first since he was going south to Florida. Jim on the other hand, liked the convenience of flying from Paducah, and thought he could get to Tampa faster and easier than his friend. The diagrams below show you how they fared.

Bill flew out of Nashville Jim Flew out of Barkley

Itineraries from 11/23/2016

Now if you look at airfare alone, you might jump to the fact that Jim paid more for his ticket. But that's only half the story. Once you add in the mileage reimbursement and parking fees, not including any meals, Jim's trip cost $110 less than Bill's did.

Then we shift our focus to total travel time.

If you look at the time difference, Bill had to leave for Nashville an hour earlier than Jim did even though his first flight left 3 hours after Jim's. This is partly because of the long drive to Nashville,and all the walking, and waiting in lines associated with that airport, but also because TSA is asking people to get to major airports 2 hours before flight times; a request that doesn't apply to Barkley Airport.

In fact even though he got to sleep an hour longer, Jim was already relaxing with a hot cup of coffee and checking emails in Chicago, waiting to board his connection to Tampa, at the same time Bill was just getting on his plane at Nashville. And if you notice, Jim arrived in Tampa, and had time to get to the hotel do more work, or relax in his hotel room for a full 2 hours before Bill landed in Tampa.

Furthermore if you were to extrapolate out their return trips, they would both arrive back home about the same time, only Jim would not have that 2+ hour drive or the possibility of getting stuck in Nashville traffic or road construction.

Now we are sure some of you are thinking we cherry-picked this example, or didn't use a direct flight or a flight on Southwest. But the simple truth is this, we chose these trips because they were the most reasonable options from both a time an money standpoint in terms of cost and how quickly you could get there. Direct flights are either fewer and far between, or they cost more. And we couldn't account for any airline reward points, or Southwest's "getaway" fare since they aren't always available, and we consistently beat their "anytime" fare.

The fact is, there are multiple variables at play when planing trips, from how far in advance you can book, to what costs in both time and money are acceptable to you, factors which are different for everyone, every trip, every time.

The goal of this illustration was to simply show that while in terms of geography, it may defy logic to fly to Chicago if you are flying south of Paducah, doing so can save you time and money, and make your trip easier, and more enjoyable for you. And that's what everyone at Barkley strives to be, your fastest, easiest, and most convenient way to get you where you need or want to go.

And we hope that this illustration will encourage you to fly Barkley, at least more often than you would otherwise, becuase it is the easiest and best way to help us grow to better serve you.